Of Duty and Love
by Heretic GM
Summary: Erik's durance has left him broken. Struggling to decide if it is better to live or die in battle. He finds a new duty to perform when his replacement calls him and begs for help rescuing it's daughter. A changeling's life isn't easy, and the fractures leave room for painful memory to worm their way up. Can an ogre save a child before she is scarred for life?
1. Chapter 1

**Present Day - New Orleans, LA**

"Erick, we need you." The voice on the other end annoyed him, Erick clenched his phone the cheap plastic protested as his bitter might threatening the disposable machine.

"what do you want?" The changeling, Erik, grumbled. "Your brat need an uncle to tell her a harsh lesson? She showing signs that she is gay?"

Erik's dark laughter sank the heart of the false man, a thing called a fetch that had been parading around filling Erik's place so his loss would never be detected. "She was kidnapped." The Fetch's voice was full of sorrow, and dispar

Growling into the phone Erik, commanded the truth. "what did you get Your family into, my better part." Erik, the changeling, was made into a dragon by the Farie that took him, and in escape he warped himself again blending in the traits of a broad spectrum of fairy creatures called Ogres.

 **20 years ago - Norway**

"Come on Elder, keep up. " Elder Grover called over his shoulder, Erik was by comparison unsteady on his bicycle. his companion was a natural at it. Able to easily jump curbs and maneuver at high speeds. Elder Erik Heller on the other hand, could barely keep his bike from shaking apart at high speeds and constantly had to tell his companion to slow down and wait for him. For a brief second everything seemed fine, and then as it seemed like he was about to finally get the hang of it. Something caused the front wheel of the bike to lock up. And he went flying over the handlebars, and into the darkness. The darkness held him suspended and then a flash of pain, as something was torn from his body. Looking up he saw another him laying in the grass wearing his suit, his clothes, and coming to life as the darkness touched it, placing something into it.

"There...now they will never know you are mine." The darkness backed away, taking shape. A grand shape, lovely to behold. A woman of beauty, and power dressed both in armor, and in gowns fit for a ball. Her armor was made of something that was dark, almost black in appearance, yet shone with a blue tone like the breath of winter.

"Elder Heller? You okay?" His companion. Yes that was who this man was his companion, his fellow apostle. Someone who he needed to work with, to love as a brother, to share the word of god. The words burned in him life a fire, not painful but hot and powerful and they needed to be shared.

"Yeah, I'll be fine Elder." Erik Heller, yes that was who he was, Elder Erik Heller, stood up and dusted himself off. "Let's go." He got on the bicycle and for the first time he could remember he mastered it. He rode off and his companion could not believe the change in him. Before he had been nervous speaking Norwegen barely had a tongue that could master it. Now he spoke it as fluently as he did english. He rode a bicycle like he was born in the saddle. He was a burning beacon of faith. Maybe it was the working of god, the hit to the head, or perhaps he was a new man.

 **Present Day - Salt Lake City, UT - Home of Erik Heller (the Fetch)**

"Please Erik hear me out." Erik, the Fetch pleaded into the phone. They had met once, but Erik the changeling had stayed his hand when he saw the wife and child. The threat was always there, hurt his family and his other would rip him apart and chop him up. Turn him back into whatever it was that he was made of. After all...he was only a part of a man, but what parts of a man he was he loved his family. He loves his daughter. IF he had to give up his life to pay for the other Erik's help to save her...then he'd build the altar to sacrifice himself on. "I uncovered something I shouldn't have. Someone was skimming tithing funds, and trying to hide it. I…"

"HOLD IT!" The roar that came through the phone nearly made the timid fetch drop his phone. Then the voice on the other end turned strangely calm. "So...let me get this strait. You uncovered someone stealing from an organization as big as The Church, and you thought you would tell the authorities. They'd be arrested, excommunicated, and thrown in jail. Right?" The fetch cringed.

"Pretty much." He whimpered. He had a feeling he know what was coming next. There would be hated, swearing, yelling, and maybe if he was lucky the real Erik would come and save his family.

"..." There was silence. The fetch strained his ears to hear. Then the words came. "You'd trust a murderer, a rapist, an oath breaking, apostate bastard with your family's safety." The word's stung but he didn't hesitate.

"No Erik. I Trust you." He said with the power of faith. It was rare for a fetch to love their changeling, but Erick the fetch had been made out of love. Erik's love and his faith. How could he not have faith and love for the man he had been made to be, and out of.

"Alright...For their sake." Their was a coldness trying to hide the warmth. He had softened the ogre's heart.

 **18 Years Ago … Arcadia, the Domain of Freya the True Fey.**

Snow, ice, forest, stone, and sparse grass and berries. Freya's domain was a frozen parody of the world of the Norsemen. It was as if it was carved from public opinion of what Norway was like in the time of the Vikings. It was his prison. He was dressed in leathers, furs, and rough spun fabric, made to look like the image of a viking warrior. He was reforged upon Freya's anvil into an engine of destruction. He saw the goddess of this world standing watching them depart. A runner from her side flew to him with wings like a crow.

"Her ladyship wants to remind you...you owe her. She wants to hear those screams." The runner said not knowing what was meant Assuming his mistress ment in battle. Erik just nodded in response and sent the messenger away. He looked at his fellows they had no problems with it. Perhaps it was because they had been here longer. Been doing this longer. Lived this life longer.

He got on the longboat, and they set sail for the target of their raid the domain of another master. There they would raid...and he would be expected to betray his final oath, and commit another sin against the divine laws he grew up with.

It wasn't the battle that was hard for Erik these days, it wasn't the killing, or the splatter or gore on him. It was the other thing he was asked to do. To take the innocence, chastity, and purity of others, and defile himself in the process. He clutched his fists and unclenched them. He couldn't do it. He couldn't bring himself to do it. He refused. Everything in his soul refused. What remained of his soul that was. It felt withered and blackened. Out there….what was that other him like. How long had he been doing this? 2 years now. It was back home by now, living his life.

"Brother." It was Ivan their leader he knelt by Erik and placed his hand on his shoulder. "You know what will happen if you don't do what she wants." He says looking at the broken man.

"I...I don't know if I can." He looked at Ivan and then away. "I...I haven't even…had a woman I loved. Why would I with a woman who doesn't want me."

"Oh...that's right you were a priest before you became a part of our shield wall." Helga, Ivan's Wife spoke up. "Ivan...I think I know what will help our dear Erik." She leaned back and whispered to her retinue of shield maidens. They giggled, and looked at Erik. Most of them were shaped to be lithe agile warriors. Swift and destructive they could hit a foe and rip them apart before they knew what hit them. They were the shield maidens, viking warrior women who could analyte a target with a savagery equal to any man, with a beauty that would tempt the purest hearts.

Though to call them maidens in the english sense was not correct. Maiden here did not mean virgin, it meant bachelorette. None of them had husbands, but Erik was certain that all of them had slept with at least one man. Astrid was the newest member of the group. She leaned forward. "Hey Erik. We are taking bets."

Erik sighed. Right they would be betting something about his ability to perform in bed. "Oh on what." It wasn't really a question just a way to move this embarrassment forward.

"On what sort of woman turns you on." She smiled as he turned bright red and looked away. Great there was a target on his back now.

After the ships landed. Sven approached him. "Listen, I know this is going to be hard for you. You've been refusing her. I get it. But last time, you refused what did she do to you."

Erik went pale. "She...flayed me alive...wore my skin...and raped a slave while wearing my skin...then cleaned my flesh with salt before putting my skin back on…" Erik shuddered.

"And the time before that?" He prodded.

"She castrated me and forced me to eat my own genitals before growing them back…to her liking." He turned and ran back to the sea to wretch.

"She isn't going to kill you…" Sven pointed out. "She's going to break you. She will make you do what she writes for you to do...and if you don't she'll keep hurting you. We can all hear your screams…" Sven shudders. "Last time you screamed for 2 nights without stopping from the pain. Please...think of us, and your own well being. While there is still a spark in you that is human. Please...give in so you can keep it alive."

"That's why I can't give in...I'm afraid if I do...that last ember of who I was will die." Erik responds washing his mouth out with seawater.


	2. Chapter 2

**Present Day - New Orleans, Lower Ninth Ward, Home of Erik**

"No Erik, I trust you." The words cut like one of the many sword or knife wounds he had experienced in his 200 years of fighting. They seared into him and gouged at what was important, his tattered soul.

"Alright...For their sake." Erik the changeling let it go, dropped his resistance to the idea that he could stand against this. Protecting that little family was something important. Something he could do to maybe earn back a little piece of himself. He put on the bearskin cloak Astrid had made for him. He knew normals people saw it as a fleece jacket, but he didn't mind. He knew he looked in the mirror. He saw the face of a man heavy with sin, with a thick beard and greasy hair. This look meant that the family wouldn't put 2 and 2 together.

He took a large dane axe and put it effortlessly into the gun rack of his beaten down truck. It would be a long ride to Salt Lake City. His house mate came back from his night shift work and looked at him. "Hey man, you going somewhere." He raised an eyebrow. Both of them were members of the summer court, but his roommate was, a dog. Well more of a wolf. His keeper had need of a hound so they stole a human and made them into a hunting dog. When he escaped his room mate was changed by the escape accepting his animal side giving himself over to beast inside and abandoning human logic.

"Yeah...my fetch." Erik said tossing a bug out bag into the bed of the truck.

The wolf's tail wagged faster. "Damn...about time. So you're going to ice him huh?"

Erik's hand shot out and grabbed the wolf man around the throat and lifted him up the wall. "His kid is being held hostage. I'm going to go save the squirt, you fucking dumb beast." He starts to squeeze letting that trigger the dog instincts as to who was the leader in this pack. The wolf's tail curled up to cover his crotch and he whimpered. "Now hold down the fort till I get back." He dropped the wolf and got in.

"You're a bastard you know that." The wolf snapped but kept his eyes down he was still cowed.

Erik just nodded and waved as he left. Every moment was important when a kidnapping was in play.

 **2 Years ago - Arcadia - Realm of True Fey Freya**

"Alright people Move! Move! Move! Fill each boat to half capacity with the slaves, I don't give a rat's ass if they want to come along or not!" Ivan shouted. The shield wall held, but just barely as waves of armored knights crashed against it. "Where the hell is Erik?" He shouted to his wife who was holding up another shield wall with her Maidens.

"I don't know but at this rate...It will have been an honor husband!" Her voice spoke of the love, a deep, savage, passion between them. No matter what these two would always find each other, always return to each other.

Something Hit the attackers from both sides at once. Warriors armed with Dane axes and great two handed axes, warhammers, and two handed swords nearly as thick as a man. Erik had lead the Berserkers here by their orders. Their savagery and hate caused the column of heavily armored warriors to back away. While the enemy columns reorganized the Berserkers retreated behind the shield wall.

"Glad you could make it." Ivan called out to them.

A female Berserker laughed and it sounded insane, but she found enough sanity to speak. "Oh we came alright, but most of us ain't gonna leave with yea, Jarl Ivan. Eventually yea are going to need to escape into that hedge, and someone needs to stay behind to cover yea arse." She gave a smirk. "Most of us are two damned fucked up in the head, we could never make it outside this place. The Real world is no place for us. We are rabid, and even yea can barely control us in this place. Out there...we'd be a sloppy mess. No better we fight, and die here." She smiled. Glancing at Erik she mouthed something before picking out 4 more of her berserkers.

"Erik, Hans, Elaina, Zelda, Matthew!" She bellowed to her followers. "Get ready there are 5 boats left, you're going to launch them. Show off the might of the berserkers. The shield wall is about to come down so these fine pretty people can get away!"

Ivan's voice was heard shouting to the shield wall, mirrored by his wife's to her wall. "Retreat! To the boats! Everyone on board, bring only what you have in hand! Move! Move! Move!" The Majority of the shield walls broke and the leaders did not bother to watch to see who hadn't followed orders they started helping the loading as the slaves watched their former captors, and tormentors lay down their lives for them. Erick put his back into it pushing with all his might as armed warriors slipped past the meager defenses above. He was mostly naked from the waist up, not that it mattered his body was covered in dragon scales and ice. He wore a bear skin over his back. The way it's arms held around him almost seemed like a hug.

The Steel of a lance bit through the pelt and cracked his frozen armor and scales drawing blood. Yet the boat launched. As it did arms grabbed him. His roar of pain at the wound had hidden something from him. He heard the orders given by the leaders on each boat now. "Pull them in!" Erik and the other rescued Berserks screamed in fury.

"Ivan! Let me fight! I should be on the beach! I need to fight! I need to help them!" He turned and watched those on the beach...those that were left being slaughtered. "I should be there! I should be with them!" He started to lunge for the shore when something blunt, heavy, thick struck him on the head.

When Erik awoke it was to screams of pain, agonies beyond measure, they had arrived, it was the hedge, that boarder world between their old one and the one they were born in. It was attacking them. Everyone was doing what they could. Ivan was barking orders watching how others reacted and trying to get them to use their abilities and talents to their best end. Erik went to work, attacking the hedge with his axe, chopping and hacking. He let his anger flow through him, into his muscles channeling his pain into power. All around him those like him were changing the other Berserkers were changing becoming more brutal looking versions of themselves with exaggerated physical appearances based on causing harm, or taking a more animalistic appearance. The trip wasn't long and everyone had had to do something to survive it. When the ship slipped into the world of men it did so...off the coast of Norway. It did not take them long to land in a small fishing village unseen.

 **Present Day, Texas on the road to Salt Lake City**

The beat up truck rambled into a parking spot at the road side motel. It seemed that this place was the sort of place one could expect to find either a cheap date that would be regretted much later, or be stabbed to death in a shower.. Erik (the changeling) was not willing to bet against either option.

The scrawny desk clerk looked about as capable as he was handsome. Which was to say he was a gangly, cooked toothed, unkempt mess that only a mother could love. The Changeling though cared not. His eyes fell upon the registry while the clerk was hoping to.

"I need a room." Erik began looking the man square in the eyes. "For one night."

"No Vacancy" the clerk said hastily.

"Bullshit, you have 1 room rented out and 9 more open" Erik pressed hard he would not be denied by this scrawny fool.

"I said no vacancy I can call the cops" The clerk raised an eyebrow. Erik had to start fighting the urge to feed the man his teeth.

"I'll wait, " Erik said coldly, as the temperature in the room started to drop as his rage grew. The man looked at him in shock. A statement like that should have sent Erik away but instead stayed resolute daring the man to call the police.

"On second thought I think I do have a room open. Number 9" the man said setting the key down on the counter as Erik set 40 dollars down on the counter.

"That's what I thought." Erik said calmly.

The room itself was well enough appointed. Surprisingly good for what on the outside was a dump and the room was cozy and the sort of place you could bring a loved one and be happy with it. Better than the sort of place one would normally bring a cheap hooker. Perhaps at one time this place was once a place where people came on their honeymoons. Erik sighed and opened his bag and looked upon a gold ring set with what appeared to be a diamond. He looked at the ring and sighed fingering it tenderly. "Hey Astrid."


	3. Chapter 3

**Present Day - Texas on the way to Salt Lake City, Pleasant Night Motel Room 9**

* * *

Sleep for changelings is nothing like sleep for humans. It is an event that can be considered at best inhuman. Dreams do no happen to the changeling, they happen to dreams. Changelings can feed on dreams, just as easily as they feed on emotions. So when Erik decided to get a late night snack from the other motel patrons, it wasn't abnormal. When the couple woke up eager for eachother's company and wanting to spend as much time lazing about before leaving, that wasn't abnormal. No what was abnormal was when they tried the door to their room and found it locked from the outside.

There was a scream, a shout of pain, and the couple next door was clearly in danger. Erik tried his door shouting to them. He could not stand idle and let them be harmed. Perhaps this would be the worthy foe who could avenge every wrong he had committed. Perhaps this foe would give him the death that would set their souls to rest. He hammered at the wall between the rooms. There was another scream of pain and a voice speaking words that could not be understood.

The wall came down and out from the dust stepped Erik.

"No...no...it's not your time. Dessert is supposed to wait till after the meal is eaten." The clerk stood splattered in blood the husband gurgling as blood pool around him. Erik looked at the scene.

"You...your just a maniac with a knife. You aren't worthy." Erik roared in rage as the woman looked at him shocked.

The woman's mouth went slack as she muttered "You were in my dream?"

The insane slasher charged Erik. Erik's body forged to be close to be close to that of a Dragon was made to turn away small wounds. Erik had 200 years of combat experience from his time living as a viking in Arcadia. The Slasher was just a psychopath with a fetish for cutting people. To compare the two was to make a joke. There was no reason to fear this battle and not reason to assume that he could not save this woman.

Erik brought down his axe with a swing as the serial killer brought his blade in to slash at the dragon. The blade groaned and sparked off dragon scale before slipping in and drawing blood. Meanwhile the killer found his left arm detached and hacked from his body and his body flung into the next room. Erik was confident that such a thing would cause severe systemic shock to the body of the foe, and leave him approaching death. "Ma'am, you okay?" His voice was quiet as he knelt by her. The pallor of her husband's skin told him what he needed to know. The man was dead and she could not hold him up. His guard was down, so when the knife bit into his back it sent waves of confusion as well as pain through him. He stood up as the blade was pulled out barely damp with blood. The slasher was looking at his blade.

"No...no...no. It's no good! Why? Why can't you drink deep precious? The man has thick scales? That makes no sense. His skin as soft and fleshy!" The clerk, his hair damp with sweat, glared at Erik who held his axe at the ready. "Something is not what it seems." He growled at Erik who came in swinging the axe for the other side now the insane man moved to evade, as if the loss of the left arm was nothing but losing the right would be unforgivable. Licking the blade he stopped. "Sweet fairy blood! Dark Fairy Blood filled with anger."

Ice formed over Erik's body becoming armor, his face twitched as he let the pounding drums of battle echo in his ears. The woman looked at him and for a moment realized the one critical thing that most humans never realize. Magic is real, the supernatural is all around and it is rarely pleasant for humanity. Though sometimes, it cared enough to stick its neck out. She pulled her husband's husk closer to her as Erik stood between her and the clerk.

The knife danced and stabbed toward Erik who moved around it and brought haft and bit of axe to bare always driving him back from the woman. Erik the Berserk Ogre had the advantage in raw power if he could just get a clean shot his axe would rip the target in twain, but his target was quick, elusive, and annoying. Sliding under the strokes that would end him instantly, or dancing just out of range. All the while cackling like a hyena was the clerk. He was running out of room Erik's mind calculated though the battle haze and would soon be trapped in a corner. He swung heavily with a blow that would shatter skulls and reduce to flinders spines and rib cages. Erik knew the clerk's next action and as a table that had been at the psycho clerks back took that first hit as his target did a shoulder roll past him to spring up to his feet. Muttering about feeding the woman to the knife so it could grow stronger.

There was a moment where the clerk was transitioning from the roll to the run that his left leg was not carrying any weight, and he was preparing to bring it forward for the next step. That is when Erik struck using the the recoil force for the last stroke he brought around the axe and in an instant his weapon of war hacked through meat and bone cleaving the man's thigh in twain. It was like the clerk did not feel it as he tried to continue forward without a sound. Erik became aware that blood was only flowing from the severed flesh not from the body. This was how he wasn't bleeding out. The man...was like a horror movie monster, a perfect, unstoppable killer, instantly and reflexively staunching his own blood loss.

Unfortunately for the clerk he was not in a horror movie right now, he was in a faerie tale. One of those old Grimm's brother tales before they were sanitized by Disney. Unaware of his missing limb the clerk went to put his weight on something that wasn't there and spun as he fell. He landed hard on chest and started to crawl forward when the heavy boot, of a man who looked like a militant lumberjack wearing chainmail made of ice, came down on his back pinning him.

"No! No! No!" The Clerk screamed at the woman flailing in madness at the woman before another wet heavy thud was heard and his knife hand was severed at the wrist, and it and the knife were flicked into room 9.

"Only someone worthy of Avenging those I've killed, can kill me jackass." Erik grinned, as he took one look at the woman the clerk was struggling still to get at, to kill. "Shut your eyes, you don't need to see this." He ordered to her like she was a child. Like she hadn't just seen him dismember the man, or seen her husband carved up like a christmas goose. The axe head blunt and weighed down by Erik's self loathing, his rage, and determination came crashing down upon the skull. There was a sick popping sound, a wet crack, and finally the wounds bled. Erik left the body and stood over the woman.

She looked at him with that doe eyed look many women got in slasher flicks right before they were murdered. Covered in blood Erik no doubt looked the part. He extended his hand and she curled toward the corpse. "Make it quick, please." She whispered. Waiting for her turn to come.

"I'm not the villain, I'm no hero, but I'm not the villain." Erik felt his heart and mind break a little at her fear of him. "Come on. I'll let you out." Erik moved to the door and swung his axe and it bit into the aluminium and cut a path through the door.

The woman looked at him dumbfounded. "You rescued me?" The thought hadn't crossed her mind. To her Freddy and Jason had just fought, and the survivor surely would come to kill her. It turned out it what had killed her husband's murderer...was something akin to some sort of demigod out of Viking folk lore. She looked over at him seeing him cut a hole in the door to set them free. "What are you?" She whimpered.

Erik froze. He turned to look at her thinking. "I'm...I guess the best way to put it is...I'm what happens when the old fairy tales are ignored." He swings again. "I was over in Norway when I was stolen by a faerie queen calling herself Freya the great and beautiful queen of Ice and Battle." He swore under his breath after speaking that name. "That psycho bitch might as well have been a god...she captured me...forced me to live in her fantasy. Turned me into a monster in body and spirit...but I got free." He looked at her and sighed and peeled back his mask for just a second so she could see the real him.

Standing there was a Icy blue scaled creature that looked bluntly dragon like, yet somehow cruder and more savage than any of the noble depictions she had seen. It's scales were not beautiful but crude and effective. It's jaws had teeth that jutted out almost at random it seemed. His body was powerful muscle made for deadly force, and inflicting chaos. Dressed in flannel and denim it was clearly the same man.

He returned the mask, the illusion that he was human, to its place and she looked at him. "Your eyes...are so sad."


End file.
